Album Review

International Language tones down the few Chicago house elements which had creeped into Plasticity, replacing them with sublime acid-electro, tribal elements on several tracks, and the same emphasis on samples which occasionally distorts the value of the underlying music. Though the melodies and chord progressions sometimes verge on the obvious, International Language is a worthy addition to CV's mammoth discography.

Biography

Formed: 1974 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England

Genre: Electronic

Years Active: '70s, '80s, '90s

Though they're one of the most important groups in the history of industrial and electronic music, Cabaret Voltaire are sometimes forgotten in the style's timeline -- perhaps because they continued recording long after other luminaries (Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, Chrome) called it quits. Also related to the fact is that CV rarely stayed in one place for long, instead moving quickly from free-form experimentalism through arty white-boy funk and on to house music in the late '80s and electronica the...